Orange amps... What is one doing on a Celestial Season album cover? The Dutch (orange is the national colour of the Netherlands, as it happens) band's doom/death/gothic was close to legendary but what's going on on this one? Well, this, their third full-length album introduced a new vocalist and is a massive style jump, let me tell you. If you miss Kyuss, this one's here to help you over them serious withdrawal symptoms. At least to some extent.

I miss Kyuss. I cannot stand Queens Of The Stone Age. So, I can dig 'Orange' quite a bit, at least to some extent. Here, Celestial Season sound like Kyuss fanboys, more than anything else. First, the vocals are incredibly similar to John Garcia; weird howls and soft soaring voice with some gritty moments galore. I mean I couldn't tell the difference, really (I got all four Kyuss albums back in the day). If you do not like them, then it's game over for this album, I guess. Gone are "the agony of love" and "write me a poem that touches me" type lines in lyrics are absent, and now they sing about and diesel, ladies and sci-fi.

Okay, Celestial Season had already utilized cowbell and some big grooves earlier, but now gone are the violins and gloomy vibes of the past. The then-band probably wrote these songs during summer time, as this was recorded during winter of 1996. I mean one can sense the hot sun and dry air over the desert of... Nijmegen?! Well, you know what I am trying to put forward here! Or then they had some water outage moments at their rehearsal place. Again, it sounds a lot like a Kyuss album, period.

Celestial Season did inject some serious groove and drive into this baby, for sure, but it sounds a tad too gentle to really kick ass, let alone slap one's face. 'Wallaroo' is a melancholic Kyuss-like opener. It's got buzz and rolling yet dragging (!) drumming; like too much sand and sunshine, but it works. It also bring another name to my mind: Xysma, and their post-death metal shenanigans. 'Too much too Soon' (not with the duration of 1:47 it is not!) leans towards Black Sabbath with its archaic doom rock vibe. The bass guitarist was most probably inspired by one Geezer Butler, as his playing is filled with fretboard finger-walks and string bending with absolutely rubbery tone. The band's doom metal roots can be heard here and there, but only very vaguely.

One thing is that it's way too long for its own good with over 51 minutes of sound in 14 songs. Some tidying up of the track list would have worked wonders (like instrumental/ambient sound track 'Carmencita' and another shorter song, 'Dive'). The truth is that the band was running out of steam on the song-writing zone, which gets evident towards the end of the album. It also has this fluctuation between harder and softer songs. There are plenty of ideas, but I feel some stuff is more about jamming than anything else. The guitar has rusty distortion, but also a clean, tidy tone.

The artwork looks like it was a Fu Manchu album. Dirty movies adverts and alien bikini babe. That's what the lyrics are about, too (sadly not printed on the booklet). Okay, the vocalist is easily conceivable, so it doesn't matter much. While looking auspicious, I think there are better places to end up as 'Orange', if you're looking for desert rock stuff. To me, it's just a too long walk in dry heat under scorching sun: You feel your steam running out way too soon.

Rating: 6- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
07/03/2024 20:48